I Saved the Alpha

8~ Mercy

I breathed heavily as I clutched the dagger to my chest. One of them was already shot dead, but I ran out of bullets for the second one who tried to flank me. It now had a long cut in its side, but that only seemed to make it even more feral.

I stood in front of the werewolf in the net protectively, knowing that any chance the animal got to kill, it would take it.

The wolf recovered from where it overran me, its side letting out more and more red, making its dark fur appear blacker than it was.

The werewolf in the net struggled, trying to free itself. The smell of burning skin and fur slammed into my senses, almost making me dizzy from the wretched stench.

"Stop trying to free yourself, idiot. It will only hurt you more." I spat out through my teeth. It growled at me a little but stopped moving nonetheless. "Don't take that tone with me, I'm trying to help you here."

The wolf in front of me seemed to chuckle, if werewolves could chuckle in their natural form. I got into my stance ready for the oncoming assault. It was a lot faster than I had thought, however, and it lunged at me.

I ducked and tried to roll away, but it's paw latched onto my shoulder blade, effectively tearing open the skin there. I cried out, almost dropping the knife, as my shoulder seared in pain. Well, that was gonna leave yet another mark.

Claws still in my shoulder, it dragged me to it. I was now face to face with the monster, spit dripping in my face and nasty breath assaulting my nostrils. It growled teeth baring, victory in its eyes.

You see, that was the problem with werewolves, they enjoyed the hunt too much. The chase, the catch, the kill, all drawn out as long as possible.

That would be their ultimate downfall.

I didn't have time to switch my dagger to my other hand, so I it brought up in a silver arc. The beast's claws now punched four holes through my shoulder and I screamed. The dagger buried itself in the werewolf's neck. It unlatched its claws and withdrew from my body, staggering to the side and to the ground.

I got up, knowing it wasn't dead. It attempted to get back up, but the silver poison now coursing through it's veins sapped all it's remaining strength. I pulled the dagger out of it's neck and did it a quick mercy, slicing along it's throat and spilling the rest of its blood.

It was more than it deserved.

My shoulder had gone numb as I limped back over to the werewolf in the net. Exhaustion almost overtook me as I sliced through the net.

It jumped up, happy to be free from its restraints. It was then I realized just how big it was.

Standing up, I was eye level with it's neck. It looked down at me with superiority, almost making me want to bow to it.

Almost.

Instead I stood my ground, looking it dead in the eye, not moving a muscle.

Finally it whimpered a little. I saw where it's azure eyes had gone. My shoulder.

Carefully, humanly, it licked at the blood protruding through my hoodie.

"I'll be fine." I pushed it's snout away, gingerly taking the hoodie off as I did. My grey tank top underneath was wet with sweat and provided no warmth, but I had to wrap this wound before I went back.

With one hand, I wrapped the ruined hoodie around my shoulder, tying the sleeves together to hold it in place.

It watched me carefully, as if a human wanting to say something.

I sighed, "Go on, I'm ok. I can make it back." The werewolf still didn't look convinced.

God, what was with this thing?

I didn't say anything more, only turned my back to it, starting back in the direction of camp.

It didn't follow me.

Thankfully, I found the clearing and path again, starting down the hill, doing my best not to jostle my shoulder.

Dad was not going to be happy that he would have to stitch me up. Again.

Campfire light could be seen through the trees. However, the tents were gone and all our packs were piled nearest to the path we originally took.

"Ariel!" Sam sprinted towards me with speed I forgot she had. If it weren't for her sense of smell, she probably would've mistakenly hugged me, but she stopped short and stared at my shoulder like it was cancer. "Oh my-"

"Sam, I'm fine." I quickly said, bringing my good arm up to place a hand on her elbow.

"Really? 'Cause that doesn't look fine!" Her hands hovered over my shoulder. Sam wanted to take the pain away, I knew. She couldn't do anything for it right now though. I winced as I started to walk towards the others.

"Yes, I've had worse than this." She didn't say anything else, only nodding and putting my good arm around her shoulders, practically carrying me the rest of the way.

"Ariel," Kyle started, but I put a hand up to stop him. Eric came over to take a look at my shoulder, used to the routine of me fighting, getting hurt, then eventually getting rid of whatever hurt me.

"It's not your fault that we got attacked, Kyle. You couldn't have known what was going to happen. I don't need your apologies, ok? I'm fine." He looked as if he wanted to say something else, but eventually nodded.

"Next thing we need to do is get out of here." I looked to Eric.

"We already have the stuff packed up and ready to go, just need to load it into the car." I nodded at him, pride going through me as I smiled through the ache in my shoulder. The adrenaline had kept the pain and the exhaustion away at first, but now it left my body drained and searing.

"Ok, let's move." Without a word, Kyle came over and moved Sam gently out of the way, picking me up in his arms.

"I can walk you know." I felt him grip under my knees and back.

"This just makes me feel better." If my shoulder wasn't throbbing so bad and my eyes drooping, I would have demanded he put me down.

But his warmth was nice, almost soothing, and I lay my head on his shoulder closing my eyes.

I didn't open them until we got back to my house, waking up to a rough voice screaming,

"What the hell happened to my daughter!?"

Oh boy.